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Charter going 100% Digital. What are my options?
Posted on 11/19/14 at 3:23 pm
Posted on 11/19/14 at 3:23 pm
Charter just informed me that as of December 9th they are going 100% digital and I will either have to add a digital box ($7/ month) to the 4 TVs without a box. They mentioned adding a Cable card ($2/ month), but I do not have any experience with those. Options? I have Rokus and Apple TVs on all TVs. I feel I just need cable for live events at this point.
4
Posted on 11/19/14 at 3:48 pm to LSUOFFSHORE
quote:
I will either have to add a digital box ($7/ month) to the 4 TVs without a box.
How did they inform you of this? If they sent an email or linked an announcement on their website, please link it. I'm not positive and will read more into it, but an ATSC tuner should be sufficient to decrypt a digital signal and that's what the boxes offer. There are also a handful of boxes that you can buy instead of rent.
Now, in terms of them possibly only going encrypted and forcing you to rent their cablecard, the FCC forces them to let you rent the cablecard and supply your own box. There are a handful of networked and computer tuners that work fine, but for a set-top box solution, check out the Samsung GX-SM530cf. It's a set top box that accepts a cablecard and has a full program guide as well as network apps and an App Store (so Netflix, Amazon, others). It also plays local content using Samsung AllShare. It's got HDMI-CEC, which usually has variable results depending on your TV. I don't know how your TV will work with that, specifically and haven't seen any reviews of it, but with some tvs, you could quite possibly change the channel and just using your regular TV remote. Don't quote me on that though.
But there's a very good chance you don't actually need a set top box if your TV has a digital tuner already. And essentially all LCD/LED/Plasma tvs have digital tuners.
Posted on 11/19/14 at 4:08 pm to LSUOFFSHORE
They did the same thing around here already. They didn't offer me the option of getting a card though, just the box. They are paying for 1 box for a year here so I had no problem getting 1 box for the bedroom then just taking the TV out of the guest room.
Posted on 11/19/14 at 4:44 pm to Hopeful Doc
Here is the Charter LINK
Posted on 11/19/14 at 5:35 pm to LSUOFFSHORE
Looks like they're encrypting true QAM channels do you'd need a cablecard. The box I linked will work instead of paying for their box. Your break even would be about 8-10 months later with no replacement as you would get if you rented from them for $7/mo.
There are networked and pc tuners, but that's really not a practical solution for viewing live content on 4 tvs. There's also the option to buy regular old cable boxes from these guys but I can't speak to their business practices personally. These would be pretty much the plain cable boxes you would rent. I don't know how they've legally obtained them to sell, but I'm not going to question the claim. I'm also not buying one at this point and am leaning to the samsung I mentioned before.
Lastly, you can go TiVo. They also charge a monthly fee and you have to rent a cablecard. You can pay for up-front lifetime service when you buy it, but it's expensive. Their "extenders" for multi room viewing with lifetime service are on sale right now, but you're looking at something like $150/box (in addition to the one main unit with either monthly or lifetime service).
There are networked and pc tuners, but that's really not a practical solution for viewing live content on 4 tvs. There's also the option to buy regular old cable boxes from these guys but I can't speak to their business practices personally. These would be pretty much the plain cable boxes you would rent. I don't know how they've legally obtained them to sell, but I'm not going to question the claim. I'm also not buying one at this point and am leaning to the samsung I mentioned before.
Lastly, you can go TiVo. They also charge a monthly fee and you have to rent a cablecard. You can pay for up-front lifetime service when you buy it, but it's expensive. Their "extenders" for multi room viewing with lifetime service are on sale right now, but you're looking at something like $150/box (in addition to the one main unit with either monthly or lifetime service).
Posted on 11/19/14 at 5:52 pm to LSUOFFSHORE
If you have a newer style tv then you will not need a box. If your tv is from the 80's-90's then you will need a box, if your tv is from another country then you will need a box.
Posted on 11/19/14 at 5:53 pm to Hopeful Doc
Posted on 11/19/14 at 6:08 pm to LSUOFFSHORE
$500 with no prospect of upgrades or replacement out of warranty. But it's $30-49/month cheaper for as long as the standard is supported.
Posted on 11/19/14 at 6:18 pm to Hopeful Doc
I cant believe they are encrypting the qam channels. My provider is all digital in some markets and even offer a cheap digital tuner so you don't have to get a $7 - $10 a month digital box.
Posted on 11/19/14 at 6:53 pm to LSUOFFSHORE
Keep in mind that a lot of cable providers require someone to come out and "install" your cable card. That is, they take the card and slide it into the port on the back of the box, then call in to activate it. Of course, they charge you installation fees to do this.
The cable providers only provide cablecards because the law requires them to do so. They don't really want to do it, they'd rather you get a cable box through them. So they make it as tough as possible.
Cox eventually let up on this rule and let me self-install the card for my TiVo, but for a while they were "professional installation" only.
The cable providers only provide cablecards because the law requires them to do so. They don't really want to do it, they'd rather you get a cable box through them. So they make it as tough as possible.
Cox eventually let up on this rule and let me self-install the card for my TiVo, but for a while they were "professional installation" only.
Posted on 11/19/14 at 7:27 pm to efrad
This is making me reconsider cutting the cord and using the roku/Apple TV and getting a good antenna. Just need Watch ESPN.
Posted on 11/19/14 at 7:50 pm to LSUOFFSHORE
One option you could look into is buying one of the TiVos that has multiple tuners, and set that up in your living room, and then buy TiVo Mini boxes for each room individually. Basically the main TiVo box has 4 tuners (or there's a 6 tuner box too) and each TiVo mini box can access the tuners over your home network, and they can watch live TV through it or access any of the recorded shows on it.
You do have to pay a monthly fee for the TiVo box's service, but it's like $15/month, and then you'd pay $2/month for the cablecard.
EDIT: The 4-tuner TiVo is $200 and each TiVo mini is $150... probably too expensive, didn't realize the minis were that much.
You do have to pay a monthly fee for the TiVo box's service, but it's like $15/month, and then you'd pay $2/month for the cablecard.
EDIT: The 4-tuner TiVo is $200 and each TiVo mini is $150... probably too expensive, didn't realize the minis were that much.
This post was edited on 11/19/14 at 7:54 pm
Posted on 11/19/14 at 8:03 pm to efrad
If you have an Xbox 360 or an earlier model, you can use it as a Windows Media Center extender. No fees with WMC, just the CableCard rental and other cable company fees. You would have to buy an HD HomeRun Prime network tuner, which gives you 3 tuners, but they're pretty cheap. If you needed more tuners, you could buy a second one. There is also the Ceton tuner, but I would not recommend anything from that company.
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